Estranged by Alex Fedyr Read Free Book Online Page A

“The
what?”
    “ The darkness.” Lecia was
kind and eager in her response. “When the Estranged touched
you—”
    “ He turned me into an
Estranged. Fuck! I know!” Kalei clenched her teeth as the daggers
sharpened at her rage.
    Lecia replied, “I’m sorry. I
understand you know a lot about Estranged. You used to be a police
officer, but—”
    “ Used to?” Fuck! Kalei bowed even
deeper into her crouch. “I am a police officer! I am Kalei Distrad, member of
the 39 th Distri— Gah!— CPD!”
    Lecia paused for a moment.
Kalei couldn’t see past the dirt-smeared skin of her knees on the
pavement, but she knew Lecia was watching her. Kalei tried to fight
down the pain inside, she tried to make it go away—
anything— black-nailed hands – No! There were no Estranged around, and Kalei was not
about to kill Lecia. The thought made her nauseous, and she felt
the pain grow with her desperation. She heard Lecia quietly reply,
“No, Kalei. You are Estranged now. I’m sorry, but whatever you were
before... you have to let it go.”
    “ Shut up!” Kalei screamed.
But even as she said it, she knew Lecia was right. Kalei placed
both hands flat on the pavement and watched as they slowly clenched
into fists. Her partner Marley, her coworkers, her neighbors, even
the young lady at the coffee shop she frequented; that entire world
was lost to her now. Just like Fenn, Kas, and Teia.... Flower-Boy
was right. She would never see them again. Any of them, dead or
alive. Kalei always knew the name Estranged was a fitting term for
those cast out from society by those black-nailed hands, but now
she knew. She
could feel the accuracy of that name down to her core. She was
Estranged now. Her whole life, although it lay just on the other
side of the fence, was gone.
    She felt a soft pressure on her
shoulder. “Don’t!” Kalei quickly pulled away and turned on the
woman. “Stay away from me! Do you have a death wish?”
    Lecia held up a gloved hand. “It’s
okay. I—”
    “ No!” Kalei glared,
holding firm until the woman let her hand fall into her lap. But
Lecia wasn’t entirely resigned. She fixed Kalei with a stubborn
stare, and they remained like that for several moments, each
silently willing the other to back down and face the truth. Of
course, Kalei knew their versions of the truth differed
tremendously. In Kalei’s mind, she was already as good as dead from
the moment her nails went black, and she knew Lecia needed to get
out of Downtown while she was still alive. But Kalei suspected that
Lecia was probably here because she thought she could save
everyone. That was Lecia, off to save the misunderstood with her
cheery smiles. But the woman’s efforts were pointless. Nothing
could make Kalei’s black nails go away. Not even a happy little
chat polished off with a nice pat on the shoulder.
    Lecia relaxed and broke the silence.
“We never could get along, could we?”
    Kalei leaned back and rubbed an aching
muscle in her hand, the newest addition to her collection of
negative sensations. “Of course not. You always wanted to save all
the Estranged.”
    “ And you wanted to kill
them.”
    Kalei turned away and studied the
morning fog, which still clung to some of the distant buildings. Of
course she wanted to kill Estranged. Who would want to let them
live? They took Downtown away from the city of Celan, they took
away daughters and brothers and mothers...They stole everything
that was good in this world, leaving behind the darkened corpses to
remind everyone of just how dark their world had become. “They
don’t deserve to live.”
    Out of the corner of her eye, Kalei
saw Lecia raise an eyebrow. “So you don’t deserve to
live?”
    Kalei clenched her teeth. “No. I
don’t.”
    Kalei turned back and saw Lecia drop
her gaze to her hands as she said, “I’m sorry...” After a moment,
Lecia looked up at Kalei, but this time, there was hope in her
eyes. “But you don’t have to feel that way— I can